Interview: Daire O'Brien: Difficult questions, simple answers

Annrai O'Toole is discovering that the secret of success is no longer complexity but easily understood products that can affect the bottom line  quickly

WHAT defines a “techie”? Logic? A rational mind? Cogent thinking? They just about fit the bill. Why should any boffin, therefore, want to topple popular preconceptions by being so illogical as to state “the next great wave of technology isn’t technology”? Annrai O’Toole is not a conventional techie and is perfectly prepared to upset conventional opinion. He has, after all, made a great deal of money out of doing just that in the past.

“Simplicity is the next great technology wave,” says O’Toole. “During the splurge of the late 1990s, business bought technology that had a phenomenal level of complexity. They are not now going to spend adding to that complexity.”

O’Toole and his 50-strong team at Cape Clear, a software development company, hope people will spend money on a product that can demonstrate an immediate effect on the bottom line.